French general and statesman (1890–1970)
People connected to Charles de Gaulle
He refused France's surrender in 1940 when his own government signed the armistice, fled to England, and rallied a resistance that made him the architect of both his country's liberation and its postwar constitution.
Born in Lille in 1890, de Gaulle was a decorated officer in World War I, wounded multiple times and held as a prisoner of war. During the interwar years he pushed for mobile armoured divisions, a doctrine vindicated when Germany invaded in May 1940 and he led a counterattack before his appointment as Undersecretary for War. Rather than accept the armistice, he escaped to England and issued his Appeal of 18 June, becoming the undisputed leader of the Free French Forces and later the French National Liberation Committee. He chaired the Provisional Government from 1944 to 1946, introducing dirigi…
Sourced, dated quotes from Charles de Gaulle
France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.
The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.
The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.
Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.
Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.
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